Aerobic exercise is a popular form of exercise that improves one's cardiovascular health by reducing blood pressure and providing other benefits to the human body. Aerobic exercise generally involves low intensity physical exertion over a long duration of time. Typically, the human body can adequately supply enough oxygen to meet the body's demands at the intensity levels involved with aerobic exercise. Popular forms of aerobic exercise include running, jogging, swimming, cycling, among others. In contrast, anaerobic exercise typically involves high intensity exercises over a short duration of time. Popular forms of anaerobic exercise include strength training and short distance running
Many choose to perform aerobic exercises indoors, such as in a gym or their home. Often, a user will use an aerobic exercise machine to have an aerobic workout indoors. One such type of aerobic exercise machine is a treadmill, which is a machine that has a running deck attached to a support frame. The running deck can support the weight of a person using the machine. The running deck incorporates a conveyor belt that is driven by a motor. A user can run or walk in place on the conveyor belt by running or walking at the conveyor belt's speed. The speed and other operations of the treadmill are generally controlled through a control module that is also attached to the support frame and within a convenient reach of the user. The control module can include a display, buttons for increasing or decreasing a speed of the conveyor belt, controls for adjusting a tilt angle of the running deck, or other controls. Other popular exercise machines that allow a user to perform aerobic exercises indoors include elliptical machines, rowing machines, stepper machines, and stationary bikes to name a few.
One type of treadmill is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,635,928 issued to Ralph Odgen, et al. In this reference, a treadmill apparatus has hand hold railings on either side between which the treadmill user exercises, with one of the hand rails having mounted on and connected with the treadmill drive motor assembly. Further, the hand rail includes a control mechanism that is adapted for hand actuation by the treadmill user when using the treadmill for changing of the tensioning of the pulley belt and the adjustment of the variable speed pulley for convenient infinitely variable speed changing of this treadmill belt between its maximum and minimum speeds provided by the treadmill apparatus involved and protection of the drive equipment against damage. Another type of treadmill is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,558 issued to Hai Kuo. Each of these references is herein incorporated by reference for all that they contain.